Many people use wireless communication devices (WCDs), such as cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), to communicate with cellular wireless networks. These WCDs typically communicate over a radio frequency (RF) air interface with a wireless network. Wireless networks typically include a plurality of base stations, each of which provide one or more wireless coverage areas, such as cells and sectors. When a WCD is positioned in one of these wireless coverage areas, it can communicate over the air interface with the base station, and in turn over one or more circuit-switched networks, packet-switched networks, and/or other transport networks to which the base station provides access.
Some base stations in cellular wireless networks may be located in publicly-accessible areas and may be usable by a service provider's customers generally. Such base stations are often referred to as providing wireless coverage in “macrocells.”
Other base stations in cellular wireless networks may transmit at lower power levels so to provide wireless coverage in smaller areas, such as “picocells” or “femtocells.” Such base stations may be located in private locations, such as residential or business locations, and/or may be usable by only particular customers. As one example, service providers have recently begun offering consumers devices referred to herein as Low-Cost Internet Base Stations (LCIBs), which may provide femtocell wireless coverage and use a customer's Internet connection as backhaul.
The wireless coverage provided by a low-power base station with a femtocell or picocell coverage area (e.g., an LCIB) may overlap or be encompassed within a macrocell. In such cases, it may be possible for a WCD to receive wireless service from either the macrocell base station or from the low-power base station.